Trump out for blood in looming 2020 fight as legal perils far from over

[DonViejo]

The president celebrated victory with the Mueller report – but then his latest effort to invalidate Obamacare left some feeling he ‘stepped all over that message’

Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington

@SabrinaSiddiqui
Sun 31 Mar 2019 01.00 EDT Last modified on Sun 31 Mar 2019 06.33 EDT

It felt like a victory lap. At a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Thursday night, surrounded by a sea of red Make America Great Again hats, a defiant Donald Trump held the podium before a raucous crowd.

“After three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead,” the president declared in a 90-minute speech.

Basking after the conclusion of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which clouded the first two years of his presidency, Trump falsely claimed “total exoneration”.

He vowed retaliation against some of his sharpest critics and suggested consequences for the media were in order. He spoke of doing away with Barack Obama’s healthcare law. And he threatened to shut down the US-Mexico border as early as next week.

It was a stark reminder of how Trump views his executive authority and a glimpse of his looming fight for re-election.

“He is much more likely to be re-elected today than he seemed at the end of last week,” said Michael Steel, a Republican operative who was an aide to former House speaker John Boehner. “I think that Democratic oversight activities will continue, but this definitely took the wind out of their sails.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/31/trump-2020-fight-healthcare-mueller-report